EX-home secy Pokharel gets 18 months jail sentence for graft

Former Home Ministry secretary Padam Prasad Pokharel was convicted of corruption worth Rs 5.9 million while holding the senior bureaucratic position, on Thursday.

The Special Court slapped him one and half years jail sentence along with penalty proportionate with the illegally amassed amount. A full bench of Special Court chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and members Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise announced the verdict.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case, accusing him of corruption worth Rs 1.51 million.

Over a CIAA appeal, the Supreme Court had ordered the Special Court to hear the case all over again, saying that its earlier decision to acquit him of the charges was faulty.

Pokharel had retired from civil service ten years ago. nepalnews.com